This invention generally relates to wireless communication systems, and more particularly to providing efficient information throughput in wireless communication systems by taking into account the receive/transmit switching times, i.e., the turn-around times of the subscriber devices in the wireless communication system.
Subscriber devices are used as parts of wireless communication systems. Inherent in the operation of time division duplex (TDD) devices is a fundamental xe2x80x9cturn-aroundxe2x80x9d time which is the amount of time it takes for the devices to switch from a receive to a transmit mode and vice versa. Because of the turn-around time an amount of inefficiency is introduced into the speed of operation of the communication system. Base stations and infrastructure equipment for the wireless service are typically much more complex than the subscriber devices; therefore, the subscriber devices normally have larger turn-around times than the infrastructure equipment and the operation of the system is limited by the slowest subscriber device. More particularly, a guard time is set in the communication system in order to support the subscriber device with the slowest turn-around time. The speed of operation of the communication system is dependent on and determined by the turn-around time of the slowest subscriber device in the communication system. Therefore, the capacity of information throughput of the communication system is greatly reduced.
Thus, there is a need for a wireless communication system that provides a more efficient and greater information throughput by taking into account the turn-around time of the subscriber devices of the wireless communication system.